Two years ago, a slate of five tea-party candidates ran for the non-partisan, 15-member Central Arizona Water Conservation District board with the aim of promoting limited government. Two won: Cynthia Moulton and Mark Lewis. They added to a push by conservatives begun in 2008 to add more of their numbers…
Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas may be a political loser, but he’s still popular with the women — of the Paradise Republican Women’s Club, anyway. The venerable Valley club has scheduled Thomas, a failed politician whose abuse of power led this year to disbarment and disgrace, to appear as guest…
Here’s the thing about the propositions on the ballot for tomorrow’s election: for the most part, they’re boring, and at the end of the day, you may not really give a damn.Thankfully, people like ousted state Senate President Russell Pearce, Governor Jan Brewer, and the lobbyists from Center for Arizona…
Carl Blackburn’s answering machine picked up a curious robocall from the Arizona Republican Party a couple days ago — and it sounded like the local Catholic church was directly urging voters to vote Republican. It went like this: “The St. Margaret’s Catholic Church, 2435 East McArthur Drive in Tempe. Please…
Maricopa County Bill Montgomery has prosecuted far fewer illegal immigrants for conspiring to smuggle themselves than his predecessor, Andrew Thomas. Thomas, who was disbarred earlier this year for abusing his power, came up with the idea to charge average illegal immigrants with conspiracy under Arizona’s 2005 state human smuggling law…
Over the past couple of weeks, the Arizona Republican Party, supporting Republican congressional candidate Vernon Parker, has demanded that Parker’s Democratic opponent, Kyrsten Sinema, release a list of her clients as a criminal-defense attorney.The odds of that happening are pretty close to zero, if not exactly zero, but now Maricopa…
Brett Mecum wants your vote for the Central Arizona Water Conservation District board. Never mind that he’s no water issues expert. Or that he was fired in the spring of 2011 as the executive director of the Arizona Republican party. And naturally he’d prefer you forgot all about his many…
A hoax video of President Obama’s birth in a Kenyan hospital, intended to make asses out of “birthers” like Sheriff Joe Arpaio once they bought into its legitimacy, failed miserably.The New York Observer, um, exposed the video as fake — a video we hadn’t even heard of until they called…
For all the “build the dang fence” advocates, or people who like to laugh at idiots, here you go — someone tried to drive over the border fence near Yuma yesterday, and failed…
It’s a sad day when you find out that Republican Florida Congressman Allen West is trying to squeeze some bucks out of Arizona residents.West — for those not familiar with him — is the most outspoken member of Congress, a tea-party king who has a penchant for making things up…
One of the biggest “Super PACs” in the nation is focusing part of its cash on the U.S. Senate Race that will undoubtedly be won by Democrat Richard Carmona or Republican Jeff Flake.However, the Ending Spending Fund — which has spent $9 million in races this year, the 10th-most of…
Republican Congressional candidate Vernon Parker claims he actually sent a letter to Arizona State University President Michael Crow to tattle on his opponent, Kyrsten Sinema, for calling ASU a “party school.”Parker also tells Crow that Sinema must think the students are “stupid” in the most unintentionally hilarious piece of campaign…
Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery put out a press release to tell foreigners to keep their distance from polling places on election day, consistent with state law.That friendly reminder is in response to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe sending observers to watch the election process here in…
One of five men charged in the 2010 shooting death of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry pleaded guilty today to first-degree murder.Three of the four other people charged in Terry’s death — which has been linked to the “Fast and Furious” operation — are still fugitives, while another was…
Yesterday, our colleague Stephen Lemons put together his list of the top 10 Arizona political ads of 2012.If you’ve turned on a television set over the past several month, then you’ve probably seen several of these — over, and over, and over again, if you gaze into the TV often.See…
Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery has his own version of Clint Eastwood’s “empty chair” routine, and although the Montgomery video is kind of creepy, it’s a lot more accurate than the Eastwood performance.See, President Obama actually exists, whereas Montgomery’s Democratic opponent does not…
The campaign ads are showing no signs of slowing in the heated race for Arizona’s U.S. Senate seat. Congressman Jeff Flake, who is endorsed by Arizona Senators John McCain and Jon Kyl, has been making every effort to paint his opponent, Rich Carmona, as a handpicked candidate who will rubber…
The Maricopa County Elections Department released some of the details this morning about the Spanish-language campaign it’s putting on, in an effort to set the record straight for any Spanish-speaking voters who may have been confused by errors made by the department.On two occassions, people noticed that materials distributed by…
Congressman Jeff Flake, who is running for U.S. Senate against former U.S. Surgeon General Rich Carmona, says he doesn’t like earmarks, which some call “pork barrel spending.” He certainly has earned a reputation for fighting against federal funding for specific projects attached to unrelated bills and routinely highlighting what he…
There are four names on the general election ballot for State Representative in District 27, and while two of those people will be elected, only one of those people was once accused of fatally shooting a woman in the face.That would be Dan Coleman, the lone Republican candidate in the…
United Road Towing, a company with a multimillion dollar monopoly towing cars for the Phoenix Police Department, has a questionable track record of dealing with its employees — and its subsidiaries have been under federal scrutiny. The company agreed in June to pay $380,000 to 13 individuals who complained that…
The campaign for Glendale mayor is getting really heated, folks — candidate Manny Cruz released a video of his opponent, Republican state Representative Jerry Weiers, moving a planter at the state capitol.It’s actually a really big planter — Weiers had to tie it to his truck to move it –…
